New Exhibitions at Caldbeck Gallery

 

From August 2 through August 31, the Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm Street in Rockland, will show the work of K. Min of Friendship, Alan Bray of Sangerville, Richard Salstonstall of Kodiak AK, and Frederic Kellogg of Thomaston and Washington D.C.  A reception for the artists, will take place on First Friday, August 2, from 5 – 8 pm. The evening will celebrate “Rockland Art Capital Maine”, the city’s commitment to bringing people together through art.

  In her exhibit “Seoul, New York, and Friendship”, K. Min will show large shaped-canvas self portraits in oil and mixed media, as well as numerous smaller rectangular paintings.  In the self-portraits, the viewer sees the artist and her surroundings through a fish eye perspective, which gives an intensified, psychological experience. These were painted in the years 1992 – 1997, just before she left her homeland of South Korea, in order to earn her Masters Degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  The other paintings in the show are in oil on canvas and on panel, dating from 2003 to the present. Of her work, K. explains, “I want to convey from my heart to my work these things: Beauty and Loss, Time and Memory, Emptiness and Appreciation, Warmth and Intimacy, Story and Metaphor, Simplicity and Poetic Minimalism.” In South Korea, she shows her work in Seoul and Busan.  New York shows include the CAAC Gallery 456, and the ISE Cultural Foundation Front Gallery. Shows in Maine include the Center for Maine Contemporary Art’s 2018 Biennial. This is her third solo show at the Caldbeck.

 

 

Alan Bray works in the tradition of casein on panel, an ancient milk based tempera paint medium, which he discovered in1973 while studying in Florance Italy, at the Villa Schifanola Graduate School of Fine Arts.  In his paintings, he uses the every day landscape places in his life. Hikes into the North Woods of Maine, or walks into the cultivated Christmas tree farm near his home, can take on a mystical presence. The artist says of his work, “Among the intricate structures of phenomena, I look for an innate order of things.  It is the branching pattern of trees, the drifting of snow, the meanders of flowing water, the swaying of grass in the wind, or the conjoining of ripples on the surface of a pond that imparts to a place and a time its particularity”. In this exhibit, titled “On Second Thought”, paintings range in size from 8 ½ x 11 inches to 20 x 24 inches.  Bray studied at the Art Institute of Boston and the University of Southern Maine, followed by his studies in Italy. His first museum show was in 1994 at the Portland Museum of Art, followed in 2000 by a 25 year retrospective at the Farnsworth Art Museum. This is the artist’s 8th solo show with the Caldbeck. 

 

 

  When Richard Saltonstall moved to Kodiak, Alaska, he found his true place on earth.  Surrounded by extreme everything, the artist expressed his awe by drawing dozens and dozens of watercolor sketches in his small sketch books.   In this show, “Kodiak: excerpts from my sketchbooks”, the artist will share with us some of his adventures in the Alaskan Wilderness. He received his BA from Harvard University and while living in Jefferson, Maine for many years, his art practices included making large scale etchings, metal sculpture, and large scale oil paintings.  The watercolor drawings in this show may be small, but they are mighty. He has shown with the Caldbeck since 1993.

 

 

Frederic Kellogg will hang 4 oil on canvas interiors.  Domestic subjects include Still Life with Cat, a view of his living room with a slanted light.  Deeply influenced by the work of American realists like Hopper and Porter, he explains that “realism has to find a new intimacy. It must demonstrate what only painting can do in helping people to see what is around them, but with new techniques and innovative approaches.”  Exhibited widely in Washington D.C. and in Maine, Kellogg’s work is in the permanent collections of the Portland Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum. He has shown with the gallery since 2007.

  Gallery  hours are Tuesday – Saturday 11-4, and Sunday 1-4.  Please call 207 594 5935 or email caldbeck@midcoast.com for additional information.